


Half Drowned

by Onehelluvapilot



Series: Febuwhump [21]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt Leon (Merlin), Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Torture, Waterboarding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-13 01:15:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29145042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Onehelluvapilot/pseuds/Onehelluvapilot
Summary: Leon was sent to spy on a duke that Arthur believed was going to rebel against him, but things don't go so well for the First Knight when he's found out
Relationships: Lancelot & Leon (Merlin)
Series: Febuwhump [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2134998
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	Half Drowned

**Author's Note:**

> Betaed by LiGi, all remaining mistakes are mine

“Go find him,” Arthur ordered as soon as the castle had been secured and the duke himself seized. The king couldn’t leave the traitor alone, even with him secured by guards, since to do so would send the very impression of weakness that had encouraged the attempted coup in the first place, but he wasn’t about to leave his First Knight, who had been sent to the duke’s castle earlier as an ambassador/spy, unaccounted for any longer. Merlin nodded, leaving his king’s side for the first time that day and grabbing Lancelot to come with him in searching the castle.

"Do you know where he is?" The knight asked, immediately deferring to his friend as soon as they were out of sight of the others.

"How should I know?"

"I thought with… you know." He did the handwavy gesture that they used to communicate ‘magic’ when they were in public. He knew Merlin had used his powers before to locate people.

"It doesn't work like that. I would have had to mark Leon beforehand to be able to follow a trail to him."

“Okay. In that case, let’s start with the dungeons, where it will be more important to find him quickly if he’s there, and then work our way up if he isn’t in the cells?” Lancelot suggested. Merlin nodded, and the two men made their way down the stairs and into the cellar.

The castle they were searching was much smaller than the one in Camelot, and had just a few cells in their dungeon. Out of those, several were being used as an overflow root cellar, stacked with bags of potatoes, and only one had a human occupant. Or rather, several human occupants. One was strapped to a table, his face covered with a cloth, thrashing while two more men poured water over him. The cell door was unlocked, which made it easy for Lancelot and Merlin to barge in.

“Back off if you want to live,” Lancelot growled, sword held between both hands as he stalked forward. The two men conducting the ‘interrogation’ looked at each other before backing up. Neither of them were armed, since evidently they hadn’t expected to encounter anyone except their helpless prisoner. Merlin rushed forward to pull the cloth off said man’s face and began to unstrap him from the bench. It was Leon, though he was hardly recognizable with blood clotted in his usually blond hair and his face contorted as he coughed.

“Hey, it’s okay, I’ve got you,” Merlin quickly reassured him, his deft fingers flying to unbuckle the straps holding his torso down and pull him to sit up. The knight immediately doubled forward with the coughs, getting in the way of the servant trying to undo the buckles around his legs. 

Lancelot ached to help, to loop an arm around his back to help support him, but he was too worried about the two torturers attacking while he was occupied. Instead, he had to just watch as Merlin got the straps off and helped Leon drop down from the table and stand. The two men limped out of the cell, and before following, Lance grabbed the set of keys off the stool beside the table, and locked the torturers in afterwards. Finally, he was able to sheath his sword and help support his friend instead. The First Knight was still coughing and gasping for air, and leaned heavily against Merlin’s side.

“Can you breathe?” Lancelot asked, quietly but urgently. Leon nodded, and he sighed in relief. He’d seen this method of torture before, when he’d been working as a mercenary and had been captured by the enemy along with his unit. He hadn’t been subjected to it himself, since the enemy knew a simple soldier wouldn’t have much valuable information about troop movements or strategies, but they had used it on his commander and his right hand man. The latter man had been okay, though he’d developed a chest sickness from the inhaled water that it took him weeks to overcome in the squalid conditions the prisoners were kept in, but the commander hadn’t been so lucky. The torturers had gone too far and drowned him.

“It ‘urts though,” Leon rasped.

“Easy, don’t try to talk,” Merlin suggested. “Let’s focus on getting you out of this dungeon.”

“‘rthur-” he managed to mumble despite the instructions not to.

“He’s upstairs,” Lancelot reassured him. “And the duke has been arrested already.” Leon nodded, and just leaned a little heavier into their shoulders, which his arms were draped over to hold him up. They went slow as they started walking towards the stairs, and then even slower on the steps themselves. Leon’s breathing was disturbingly labored and audible, as if he had run miles instead of barely made it up a flight up steps with support.

“Can you get him to a bedroom or something while I go tell Arthur?” Merlin asked. The king would want to know that his First Knight was alive as soon as possible, but seeing it for himself would have to wait, as Leon needed to lie down somewhere that wasn’t a torture table. 

“Sure,” Lancelot agreed, taking all of his friend’s weight onto himself as he began to make his way towards where there might be guest chambers. They found one fairly quickly, with the help of a servant who was easily persuaded that not helping them would be tantamount to treason against the king. Leon groaned when Lancelot wouldn’t let him lie down completely, keeping him propped upright with a number of pillows.

“Can’t I lie down?” he groaned.

“No, sorry, I don’t want the water to settle in your lungs,” Lancelot explained, sitting on the edge of the bed next to him. “Now, how else were you tortured?” he asked, assuming that they wouldn’t have just done one thing to him.

“Lashed,” Leon murmured. “And a couple cuts.”

“Okay. Thank you for telling me.” He squeezed Leon’s hand gently. The knight wasn’t looking good; his face was lined with pain, and he avoided eye contact. “When Merlin gets back, we’ll get those taken care of. For now, just try to relax, okay?” Leon nodded and laid back a little more against the pillows, but he looked the farthest thing from calm. He was obviously still in pain and no small degree of distress.

“Lancelot, I… I broke,” he admitted. “I answered their questions, told them things about Camelot’s security, troop movements… I think I managed to lie for some of it but I just needed the pain to stop.” He broke off with a cough, and there were tears brimming up in his eyes.   


“Hey, it’s alright. The lord’s already been arrested, so he won’t be able to use that information. It’s okay,” Lancelot reassured him, rubbing his back.

“That’s not the point,” Leon grumbled. His voice still sounded wrecked from the waterboarding. “I betrayed Camelot.”

“Leon, listen to me,” the other knight said firmly, taking hold of his head with both hands so he could make him look at him and see the sincerity in his eyes. “You did not betray Camelot.  No one can be expected to stay silent under torture.  _ No one _ , no matter how loyal or brave or strong. Anyone who would demand that kind of obedience from you does not deserve it, and I guarantee you that anyone who criticizes you for this does not understand what they’re talking about and would cave under circumstances half as bad.”

Leon’s eyes brimmed with tears, and Lancelot let go of his head so that the First Knight could look away and wipe his face dry.

“And, well, I’m not sure if this will make you feel better, but you probably didn’t give them anything useful anyway. Information gained from torture is rarely reliable,” Lancelot added, dropping his hand down to his friend’s arm and squeezing it gently.

“That does help, actually,” Leon sniffed. “I barely remember what I said, so it’s nice to hear it was probably incoherent.” Lancelot smiled sympathetically.

“Merlin and probably Arthur will be here in a minute. Do you want to try to get some rest or to compose yourself before then?” Lancelot knew Leon wouldn’t want his king to see him crying.

“Yeah, I should,” the First Knight agreed with another sniffle. “Stay with me?” Lancelot nodded.

“Of course.” Even if Leon didn’t have a tight grip around his wrist keeping him there, he wouldn’t have left for the world.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos/comments are always appreciated


End file.
